Sign Up Process

Important! Comic Genesis has updated and is now running AutoGenesis - The tutorials and instructions included here on the CGWiki may not be accurate and will need updating. For more information, read this entire thread starting from this post.

Getting Started

Step 1

Step 2

Read ALL of the information on the next page. In summary, your comic cannot be completely composed of:

Copyrighted Sprites / blatant edits of copyrighted sprites.

Screenshots taken directly from any kind of pc/videogame.

Basically your comic must be your own work; no ripping other people off.

(KittyKatBlack's Note: This is mainly to avoid legal action against ComicGenesis for hosting such copyrighted material. Not only that, it's unoriginal and has been done to death. You can use copyrighted characters in your comic as long as the art is all your own under the 'Fair Use' act.)

Step 4

Fill in all the fields:

A correct (and working) e-mail address

IMPORTANT! Use an email address that you will keep for a long time. If at some later stage you lose your password or return to a comic after going on Hiatus or have a computer crash, this is the email address that your new password will be sent to. Don't create a new Hotmail account and then let it get deleted! This email address will not be given out, sold or spammed so you can confidently use your main email address. Also note that once signed up, you can't change this address.

Verify the e-mail address

Author Name (only one author name is allowed) (KittyKatBlack's Note: Currently, this name will be the one displayed on The Guide and when your page is first generated.)

Postal or Zip Code (For a postal code, put three digits in each box. For a zip code, only use the first box.)

Phone Number:

Box 1: Country Code. (You can find a list of country codes here. Find your country, and take the number from the very next column (Remove any +'s or *'s) and enter that number in this box.) And note that Canada/USA use country code 1.

Box 2: Area Code (Do not confuse this with Zip or Postal code.)

Box 3: First three digits of your phone number

Box 4: Last four digits of your phone number

Your Username (This will be the comic address and your FTP username. So entering, for example, "mycomic" as your username would make your comic address be "http://mycomic.comicgenesis.com" and when you log into FTP your username would be "mycomic".) Also important: You cannot change your username after registering! So choose carefully.

Comic Title (The full title of your comic.)

Set your update offset (If you don't understand it, which you probably won't, I would recommend leaving it as it is and tweaking it after your account is set up.)

Brief description of your comic (KittyKatBlack's Note: Take special note of the word 'Brief'. This is for your listing on The Guide, and ment to be a simple overview. Do NOT write a book report about your comic explaining everything and every character in detail.)

Submit a sample comic (This will show up as your first comic when your account is first created, but it can be easily changed or removed afterwards.) (KittyKatBlack's Note: This SHOULD be a comic, even though you can replace it, you shouldn't put filler here. Also, DO NOT UPLOAD LARGE IMAGES! It's annoying and can break The Guide. A good rule of thumb is to not let the width of your comic exceed 800 pixels, which is generally the maximum screen width for people with 800X600 resolution. Anything larger than that can stretch pages out of proportion. Not to mention it's generally hard to read and look at.)

Check the box to signify that you agree to what was stated in the Terms of Service page (Don't forget to do this, it's easy to miss if you're not paying attention.)

Click the "Verify" button

Step 5

After you submit you application you will receive your first email. This will be a verification email so that we know that you are a person and not a spambot and that you really do want to create a comic. This email will contain an activation code that you copy and paste into the verification page in order to confirm your application. Note that it can take up to 24 hours to arrive in your inbox. If you do not receive it within 2 weeks, you will need to sign up again because your application will have expired.

(KittyKatBlack's Note: Be sure to check your spam/junk mail boxes if you have a spam filter. Occasionally this e-mail will be sent there because it is automated, but it generally shouldn't.)

Step 6

After seven (7) days you should receive your Welcome email. Yes, it will take at least seven days (maybe eight or nine in some cases). It generally takes at least this long so don't panic if it's been a whole week and you still haven't got it. You may need to wait 2-5 days after you receive this e-mail before your account becomes fully active. Keep checking your website address until you can see the sample image you signed up with. This is the easiest way to keep track of it's progress.

Also, you can check to see if your submission has been accepted into the system. This page lists the current submissions to the Comic Genesis system. Your submission should appear here before you can access it and will then be removed from this page when your comic is accepted at the end of the seven day waiting period.

The Welcome email will give you some information you'll need:

You'll need to register on the CG Forums (your username [and/or password] do not need to be the same as your comic, but it might help)

It will tell you how to get help if you are confused (go the CG Forums Help Center)

Once you receive your Welcome email and have set up your FTP password / forum account it might take up to an additional 48 hours for your account to become fully active. If you try to do something and you can't (but you think you should be able to) then just wait another day or two. If you still can't, pop into the forums and ask.

If you missed it: new members are not issued a password anymore - you will need to go to the lost password page (link provided in the email) and set one up. It only takes a few minutes.

Step 7

When you receive your Welcome email, there will not be a password included. You need to set it up. Go to this page to set it up. Enter your FTP username (The one you signed up with. We used 'mycomic' as an example.), a new password, and then that same password again and click "Generate New Password".

(Note that "Generate New Password" means "Submit" and not "create something at random")

You should receive an e-mail almost instantly with an activation code. Return to the Lost Password Page and enter the code you got and click the "Activate" button. You should now be able to log in using your new password.

Also note that if you double-click the code in the email and then copy + paste, Windows will sometimes add a space onto the end. Make sure that if you copy + paste that you only copy the code itself.

Step 8

At this point, you should log into the Comic Genesis Forums (sign up for a forum account if you have not already done so). Make sure that you sign in with the correct name (as in, if you registered on the forum as BobsComic, make sure that you don't sign in with bobscomic or Bobscomic). Otherwise, you will have trouble logging into SiteAdmin. See this page for more information.

After this, go to the ComicGenesis main page and click "Log In" to sign into the SiteAdmin using your forum username and password. Your comic title should appear. By clicking it you can edit your comic data, ratings and other information. This is also where you can do manual updates.

(KittyKatBlack's Note: If your comic doesn't show up when you log in, you can add it by just clicking the "add" button. Simply use your FTP username and password and the appropriate comic will be added to the list. If you have multiple comics, you can add them all to this list for easy access.)

Also note that if you want to use the CGWiki, you need to use your Comic Genesis Forum name / password to log in. But you need to have made at least some posts in the forum before you will be allowed to log in to the CGWiki. See the Help Forum if you have trouble. (If you have less than three posts, CGWiki will not let you sign in)

And still on forum accounts - know that every so often forum accounts that have zero posts made are deleted. This is part of the anti-spam program. So make sure that you make at least a couple of posts in the forums to prevent your account from being deleted. If there are no threads that interest you, post in the "Can't log into CGWiki?" thread in the Help Center.

FAQ:

Q: Does it really take over a week to recieve your password after you recieve the first e-mail?

A: Yes, but the wait is worth it. You get unlimited space and bandwidth for your comic and all you have to do is place a banner ad at the top of each page.

Q: Why?

A: Just because. Just wait the 7 days. Trust me, it's really worth it at the end. (KittyKatBlack's Note: Mainly, this wait is because the ComicGenesis admins review each comic submission manually to check for Terms Of Service violations, or problems that might come from accepting the submission. And since they get a LOT of submissions, it takes a long time to go through them all.)

Q: Can I use FTP with Mozilla Firefox?

A: As far as I know, Firefox does not have FTP support by default. There may or may not be add-ons that will allow it, but I have no idea if there are any. (There is an Add-on for Firefox available here (not locked - the little padlock just means it's a secure connection via https) called FireFTP. At the moment, it has mixed reviews, but seems to work on CG.)

Q: I need help with *Insert Commercial FTP client here*

A: As I use Internet Explorer's FTP support, I cannot help you with any other kind of FTP client, but you could try posting on the ComicGenesis Help Forums. Someone there is bound to be able to help you.

Q: Some of the pages mention something called "Keenspace". What's that?

A: Keenspace was the original name of Comic Genesis. Whenever you see something that says "Keenspace", pretend it says "Comic Genesis."

Q: What do I do next?

A: Your best bet is to take some time to read through the tutorials page, especially the ones in the first category. If you have specific questions (How do I do X?) then you can pop into the Comic Genesis Help Forum and ask. (Note that general questions such as "What do I do now?" are harder to answer)

Important Note About Recieving Help

NEVER e-mail the ComicGenesis staff directly, as they are very busy. There are literally hundreds of friendly people who can help you with just about anything on the ComicGenesis Help Forums, and you'll usually get a response on the forums in under a day.

(KittyKatBlack's Note: Unlike many online forums, the ComicGenesis forum is very active and almost always has people available to help you. It's very newbie friendly and we'd love to see you so I would HIGHLY recommend joining the community on the forums. We don't just give help, we do fanart for each other, play forum games and do comic jams. You really should check it out, even if you don't need help. ^_^)